


Fantastic Professors and Where To Find Them

by xslytherclawx



Series: Chanukah 5779 [4]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Bisexual Newt Scamander, Bisexual Tina Goldstein, Canon Jewish Character, F/M, Fluff, Hanukkah, Jewish Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 17:51:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16837480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xslytherclawx/pseuds/xslytherclawx
Summary: Working at Hogwarts provided Newt with ample opportunity to work on compiling his notes into his book – something cohesive and sympathetic to the plight of magical creatures all over the world. Teaching children would only aid in broadening Wizardkind’s understanding of creatures.He was not, however, prepared for the interim Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. While Newt had his problems with Aurors, and their black-and-white thinking and general habit of casting spells first and asking questions later – he hadn’t quite expected Auror Goldstein to be so, well, beautiful.(hogwarts professors au)





	Fantastic Professors and Where To Find Them

**Author's Note:**

> Because what is Dumbledore doing teaching DADA in FB2??
> 
> the title is awful but i'm literally trying to write 16 fics in like 3 weeks so if I come up with a better one I'll fix it later.

Care of Magical Creatures was a new subject, and Newt rather suspected that if Dumbledore hadn’t  _ liked _ him, for some reason (Newt still wasn’t sure), it wouldn’t be a subject that was being taught at all. 

Working at Hogwarts, though, provided him ample opportunity to work on compiling his notes into his book – something cohesive and sympathetic to the plight of magical creatures all over the world. Teaching children would only aid in broadening Wizardkind’s understanding of creatures.

Newt knew that it would take hard work – especially interacting with  _ people _ on a daily basis, which had truthfully never been one of his strong suits – but it was work that needed to be done, and he hadn’t been a Hufflepuff for nothing.

He was not, however, prepared for the interim Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Dumbledore, if you asked Newt, seemed quite smug about his new position as Transfiguration professor, and Professor Dippet hadn’t set up a replacement – so the board had found a qualified Auror to serve in the interim.

That wasn’t in itself a problem. While Newt had his problems with Aurors, and their black-and-white thinking and general habit of casting spells first and asking questions later – he hadn’t quite expected Auror Goldstein to be so, well,  _ beautiful. _

He certainly hadn’t expected her to care about anything outside of her department or the Ministry, but she stopped by one afternoon just as he was finishing teaching fourth years about Nifflers. He did his best not to be visibly distracted, but still let the students go a few minutes early.

He turned to the unjustly beautiful Auror in the back of his classroom. “How can I help you, Auror Goldstein?”

“I wanted to see if the rumours were true,” Auror Goldstein said.

“Which rumours are those?” Newt asked, although he could think of any number. “I hope you don’t think I look too much like my brother.”

Auror Goldstein looks a bit confused at that. “I don’t know anything about your brother, but I  _ had _ heard that you’re teaching children that creatures are no different from us, and that you think that all we need is compassion and knowledge to coexist with them.”

“I wouldn’t say that they’re no  _ different _ from humans,” Newt said. “I rather prefer the creatures, myself, to humans. But they are equally deserving of dignity and respect, and if humans had a bit more compassion and understanding for creatures, we could certainly make the world a bit better.”

To his surprise, Auror Goldstein smiled. “Did you grow up around creatures?”

“My – mother breeds Hippogriffs,” Newt said after a moment. “I’m sorry, Auror Goldstein, are you actually – interested in creatures?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked. “There are so many regulations on them in America that I really never got to see any.”

“Well, it’s just – most aurors I know tend to – cast spells first and ask questions later. They don’t tend to think about things that they believe are – below them?”

“Is your brother an auror?” Auror Goldstein asked. “The one you mentioned earlier?”

“He is, although I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

She smiled. “I assure you, I’m genuinely interested in what you have to say.”

Newt wasn’t sure how to respond to that, he said without thinking, “I can show you the creatures I have, if you’d like.”

“I think I’d like that,” Auror Goldstein said. “I can even leave my wand here, if you’d prefer.”

He knew enough about humans – about witches and wizards – to know that that was a sign of trust, so he smiled at her. “Just keep behind me, and you should be fine.”

* * *

“Someone’s smitten,” Leta teased at lunch in Hogsmeade a week later.

“I am not,” Newt protested. “It’s just that I – find the work I’m doing rewarding.”

“Whatever you say, Newt,” Leta said. “Whoever this is, you’d better tell him – or her, I suppose – how you feel before you get yourself into another boy-related disaster. Or your first girl-related disaster.”

“For the last time, Leta, I’m  _ not _ exclusively interested in wizards.”

“So it  _ is _ a witch?” she asked. “How exciting. Is she another professor? Oh!” Leta’s smile turned into a sly grin, and sometimes Newt  _ really _ regretted befriending a Slytherin for just this very reason. “Is it the interim Defense professor? Thees says she’s infuriating, which must mean that she’s perfect for you.”

“Just because Theseus finds someone infuriating doesn’t mean that I’ll  _ like _ them. Or – vice versa. After all, we both like  _ you.” _

“Tell her how you feel, Newt. The worst she can do is say no, and she’ll be gone by June. Or – if she says yes, maybe she’ll stay on.”

“You’re incorrigible,” Newt grumbled. “I came here to catch up with my oldest friend –”

“Your  _ only _ friend,” Leta corrected, and she was the only one who  _ could. _

“Fine, my  _ only _ friend, and I really don’t enjoy being pressured into – dating a coworker simply because you want to torture your fiancé by setting me up with someone he finds infuriating.”

“Newt, you do know that you’re a rotten liar, don’t you?”

* * *

“I was – thinking about finding out how many Jewish students are here and organizing something for Chanukah,” Tina said one afternoon in November as she helped him feed the mooncalves. “It doesn’t overlap with Christmas this year, and I know Ilvermorny always has something.”

“Shouldn’t Hogwarts, then?” Newt asked, although if he were honest, he didn’t remember ever meeting a Jewish person while he was at school. That had come first during the war.

“It  _ should, _ but – I’m sure you’ve noticed that I share a last name with a few students.”

Newt nodded. He thought there were two of them, but then his class wasn’t quite mandatory.

“We’re second cousins,” Tina said. “And I asked Sam if there was anything here for Chanukah.”

“He said there wasn’t?” Newt asked.

“Exactly.”

“Then we should remedy that.”

When Tina smiled, it made Newt’s chest constrict rather uncomfortably. He realised with a start that he knew that feeling, and that Leta had been right all along.

* * *

He helped Tina set up on the first night. They’d decided on using her office, because there really weren’t very many Jewish students at the school, as it turned out.

“It’s strange celebrating without Queenie,” Tina said as she hung a banner.

“You’ve never mentioned what she’s up to,” Newt said.

“Oh, she has some Ministry job. She’s the reason I’m here, really. She went and fell in love with a No-Ma– Muggle.”

“American anti-fraternization laws are rather backward, aren’t they? Did he come here with you?”

Tina nodded. “Yeah. I came first; my transfer wasn’t too difficult to push through. And then Queenie got a job, and Jacob came with her. They can be together here – but I’ve still never had a Chanukah without her.”

Newt really wasn’t sure how to relate to that. He and Theseus had always had a  _ complicated _ relationship, to say the least, and he hadn’t celebrated Christmas with his family since before the war. Well – he supposed he could say that. “I actually haven’t – celebrated Christmas with my family since before I went to war.”

“You were in the war?” Tina asked.

Newt nodded. “Eastern Front. Ukrainian Ironbellies. The project was discontinued after while because they, er, tried to eat everyone except for me. Which is one of the reasons that I think my class and my book are so necessary.”

“And – since then?”

Newt shrugged. “My mother looks down on my choice of profession, and my brother and I have always had a tense relationship, so it was – relatively easy, really, to always find some excuse to be away at Christmas to avoid dealing with them.”

“Oh,” Tina said, and Newt suddenly had the feeling that he’d gone and said completely the wrong thing.

“I’ve never quite fit in, you see, not with humans. I had lunch with a friend – my brother’s fiancée, actually – and she made a remark about how she’s my only friend, and the thing is – she’s right. I have one friend, and I’ve only really had two or three – romantic attachments – and only one of those actually  _ came _ to anything, and he went back to his wife, after the war, even though he’s – well, not remotely interested in women.” 

And now he’d gone and outed himself. While most people didn’t seem to care very much, that was in  _ Britain, _ and he knew that Americans had backwards ideas about Muggles, so it wasn’t  _ terribly _ a stretch that they could have backwards ideas about men like him.

“And here I thought we didn’t have much in common,” Tina said.

“I’m sorry?”

Tina glanced over toward the door. “I don’t have many friends, either, and while I’ve never been with someone who was  _ married, _ the – girl I was in love with when I was younger did turn around and marry a man.”

“Oh, I’ve had that, too,” Newt said. “That’s sort of –  _ why _ I wound up with that married man.”

“A girl?” Tina asked.

“A witch, yes,” Newt confirmed. “I’ve – long since gotten over it, even if my initial coping methods were far from healthy.”

Tina opened her mouth to reply, but there was a knock at the door, and it creaked open, revealing Sam and Rebecca Goldstein. “Sorry we’re a bit late, Professors,” Sam said.

“You’re just on time,” Tina said.

* * *

Newt observed the celebrations with the sort of intellectual curiosity and respectful distance he felt it deserved. He made a mental note to inquire about the spell Tina used to light the candle (and why she only lit the one candle with magic). 

He stayed, for his part, mostly off to the side, as had become his habit sometime in the past nearly thirty years. Best to let everyone enjoy their celebrations.

TIna appeared to have noticed at one point, because she walked over to him with two goblets of wine, and offered one to him. He took it, and tried not to think about the fact that when their fingers brushed, it felt as if a jolt of electricity had gone through him. 

He didn’t even know if she was interested in men, and even if she were, by some stroke of luck… no woman wanted to be with a man who’d admitted to having been with other men. The wizarding community in Britain might have tolerated gay men, who were exclusively interested in other men, but men like him – he was interested in women, so wizarding society dictated that he ought to have never touched another man (at least not beyond experimentation, which Newt rather found, more often than not, to be a sad attempt to obscure attraction and even love between two wizards).

It would never work out.

“You can have some latkes, too. They’re these little – potato pancakes. I know you’re not Jewish, but I did invite you to actually take part.”

Because she pitied him having only one friend, most likely. “Thank you, Tina. And I meant to ask you – what was that spell you used?”

“I can’t tell you,” she said. “Ancient Jewish secret. It’s an Aramaic spell that’s traditionally passed down from parents to children. I had to – learn it from a classmate.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Newt said, because he was. 

“Thank you,” Tina said. “And thank you for helping me get this set up. And for – spending Chanukah with me. I hope you’ll keep coming. It does last for eight nights, after all.”

“Of course,” Newt agreed.

* * *

“It occurred to me,” Tina said the following afternoon after classes, as she helped him with his creatures, “that – because we were interrupted yesterday – I might have left you with the wrong impression.”

“What impression is that?” Newt asked.

“That I’m not interested in men,” Tina said. “I know I said I was in love with another girl when I was younger, and that’s true. But I am interested in men, too.”

“Oh,” Newt said. “So there is actually some chance that you don’t think me completely depraved?”

“Depraved?” Tina asked. “Why would I think you’re  _ depraved? _ You’ve never been anything but kind to me, and you’re writing a book in defense of creatures for the general wizarding public. That sort of thing is generally the  _ opposite _ of what comes to mind when I hear the word  _ depraved.” _

“Because I’m – interested in men and women both.”

“I’m sure  _ you _ of all people don’t think that that kind of thing’s unnatural.”

“Not unnatural at all,” Newt said, “but it is certainly frowned upon by wizarding society.”

“Newt, I really don’t care who you’ve been with,” Tina said. “And – honestly, I’m kind of relieved that you’re the same way.”

“Oh,” Newt said. He tried to process that. “Relieved?”

“Yes,” Tina said. “Relieved.”

“Why relieved?”

Tina looked at him as though he had three heads. It was a look he was quite used to receiving, but from Tina, it stung. “You really don’t know?”

“No,” Newt said. “Although I suppose I can think of a few possibilities. It does make it easier to – feel comfortable, when you know you’re talking to someone of a similar inclination.”

Tina sighed, set down her (empty) pail, and marched over to him. She stopped mere inches away from him. “You’re a very smart man, Newt,” she said.

“I – thank you, I think,” Newt said. “I think you’re the most brilliant witch I’ve ever met.” And the most beautiful, but he’d never actually say that.

“But you really don’t get it, do you?”

“Evidently not,” Newt said. “If you could just explain it to me, I’m sure I can follow along.”

“I  _ like _ you, Newt,” Tina said.

“I like you, too, Tina,” Newt said, “now what, exactly, are you trying to get at? I can understand creatures, but with humans, I’m afraid I sometimes need things to be a bit more – clearly laid out.”

“Oh, Mercy Lewis,” Tina huffed. “Newt, I  _ like _ you. As – more than a friend.”

Oh. The worst part was that that actually made sense, and had he really been this dense all along? “You actually want to – be with me?” Newt asked.

“Of course I do,” Tina said.

Of course?  _ Of course? _ The most beautiful woman in the world wanted to be with him, and when he asked, she said  _ of course? _

Tina sighed again, and leaned in to kiss him. Her lips were a bit chapped but still soft, and although he knew that humans – even wizards and witches – were creatures like any other, he couldn’t help but feel, in the moment, that there was no other person who could possibly make him feel this way.

Tina pulled away after a minute or so, looked him straight in the eye (and he forced himself to meet her gaze, even though it was uncomfortable, looking anyone in the eye) and asked, “Was that clear enough?”

“Absolutely,” Newt said, finally averting his gaze. “And if you’d like to – do that again, I certainly wouldn’t protest.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t,” Tina said.

**Author's Note:**

> Tina knew exactly who Theseus and Newt were at the beginning – and sort of figured the best thing to do would be to ignore the fact that Theseus exists, at least while she was trying to get to know Newt.  
> And yes, Newt's little complaint to Leta _is_ the 1920s wizard version of "i came out to have a good time and i'm honestly feeling so attacked right now"
> 
> * * *
> 
> [tumblr](http://xslytherclawx.tumblr.com)


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